Pilot Light Spelling Bee Proves PBR's a Smart Choice

So odd how these connections come about in this tiny society we call Knoxville, and maybe just a little weird that a food columnist has managed to work a spelling bee into a blog post, but bear with me... I was plainly intrigued by the Adult Spelling Bee being hosted by Pilot Light on Feb. 17 (that's a Wednesday) at 8 p.m. If I can come up with five bucks, I may even enter, and my co-worker Frank Carlson seemed grudgingly willing, too.

But here's where it gets eerie. I go to check the details and CAN NOT HELP NOTICING that each entrant of legal age also receives a PBR at registration. Wow. You've got to be smart to spell good (well, I mean well), don't you? And that's when it hit me. Didn't Josh Wright of the Three Rivers Market SAY that PBR is the intellectual working man's beer choice just like four months ago?. He was participating in the pivotal "What Your Beer Says About You" article I penned (note how that is spelled cor-rectly), with his credentials as "self-described 'beast of burden' at Three Rivers Market food co-op on Broadway and co-manager of its beer cooler, though co-workers call him 'The Man.'"

Here are his words about PBR in 16 oz. cans, which almost haunt me now:

"That's all I buy here," says Wright of Three Rivers. The 83-cent price tag is surely one draw. "Also, the parent company, from what I heard, is a non-profit, which is why you hear their ads on National Public Radio." [In fact, Pabst is owned by the Kalmanovitz Charitable Trust, which received the assets of S&P Holding Company in July 2000 at the death of Lydia Kalmanovitz. They have been court-ordered to find a buyer, soon, presumably one that will be for-profit, and their non-profit status has only been extended through IRS intervention past the intended five years]. "I consider PBR the smart working man's choice--and it has to be nutritious, or we wouldn't sell it here!"

Don't let these wise words deter you from remembering the original topic: the spelling bee at Pilot Light:

Wednesday • February 17 • 8pm
Adult SPELLING BEE! Free admission / $5 to enter bee (includes a free Pabst) EARLY 8pm SHOW!
18+ $FREE

And if I make it to the competition, don't jeer at me, and maybe I'll let you drink my PBR. Or maybe I already promised it to Carlson...